Chapter Text
Arianwen didn't particularly want to be in the Vatican – she had a very low opinion of them, having seen their rise to power and knowing how they did that in many cases.
Also, they didn't exactly like anyone like her either... She held back a snort: arrogant, terrified little children with their frantic horror stories and egotistical hypocrisy.
Still, here she was. Not for long, thankfully, but she'd been in the area and figured she might as well steal some stuff since she was here. Not like these guys were appreciating what she was after anyway. They wouldn't know the truth if it danced naked in front of them and bit them in the arse – though, she mused with a private grin, the Devil might just do that to amuse himself.
And their security on their secure archives... well, that was laughable. Not for humans, but for someone who'd been around as long as she had, and with her particular talents...well.
Hearing the name 'Lucifer Morningstar' spoken in one of the courtyards as she was passing through – secret to not being stopped and asked what you're doing somewhere? Act like you belong there, something she was long accomplished at – had her halting on her quest. The hell (no pun intended)?
Her hearing being better than that of a humans, she had a seat in one of the alcoves, and listened in on the conversation between a priest...and a familiar looking woman as she identified them as the ones talking about one of her favourite people ever.
What was Chloe Decker doing in Europe, and at the Vatican of all places? As far as she knew, the so-called 'detective' thought her civilian consultant partner was a playboy with delusions, who was helpful on cases so she kept him around. If she was here ...did she finally accept the truth of his identity?
"We've been aware of him for about seven years," The priest was saying – and he seemed sort of familiar as well, as if she should know of him from somewhere. "At first we thought he was just a benign eccentric, but the more we watched him the more... terrifyingly authentic he became." Well shit. Arianwen ground her teeth together.
Priests were usually a mild annoyance to her almost-brother-in-law, but this one seemed especially pompous and full of himself. Probably thought he was on a damn mission from God...
"And since you've travelled all this way to research him... I assume that you agree with that." Well, that had been her presumption at seeing the stupid woman as well. Not that this priest approaching her boded well at all...
Decker was shaking her head slightly, mouth opening and closing a couple of times before getting words out. "I don't know what to think,"
If you've finally seen something you can't conveniently ignore or explain away, then you damn well should know what to think, the things he's done for you.
"I realise that this must be extremely difficult for you," They had come to a stop now, near where she was seated behind an arch. "But I want you to know: I'm here to help."
"How?" She gasped. "How can you help me?" The priest was silent, and she shrugged miserably, nodding in resignation. "That's what I thought."
"But there is something you can do."
Well that didn't sound ominous at all.
Holding back a sigh, Arianwen decided to follow the misguided pair: whatever they would get up to, it would probably be a minor inconvenience if anything – not like they could actually send the Devil back to hell as so many people seemed to believe, if that was indeed their intention – but she knew how Lucifer had felt about the woman. Not so much recently, admittedly, from what she had heard from Michael, but still: if she was going to betray him – and running away to the Vatican of all the ludicrous places suggested she might be, as did this priest who gave her bad vibes – it would hit him hard. He'd thought she was different, but may be about to be proven wrong.
(And what was it with humans and thinking the Devil was a Christian concept therefore the Vatican was the place to go? It was like no one, anywhere, had ever done any homework... she supposed the old fools in their silly robes had done a pretty good job at squashing others over the centuries...)
Poor Lu.
***
It wasn't hard to follow them into one of the reading rooms, and conceal herself in a place with a clear visual where she could see and hear everything and from where they would remain unaware of her.
What she heard, she wasn't liking. Stupid International Association of 'Exorcists'. As if there was even demonic possession anymore – Lu banned that years ago.
Kinley, it seemed, had a scrapbook of Lucifer's 'misdeeds', which Decker was currently flipping through.
"Once we uncovered Lucifer's identity we were able to uncover evidence of his previous visits with humanity."
Decker, at least, sounded sceptical, but she could detect fear in her voice as well. Still kinda on the fence then... though, from the books open on the table, which she had clearly been reading before they came back here – depictions of 'Satan' eating children and other such hysterical images – she was leaning more towards the fear, unfortunately. "Y-y... you're saying he caused the Chicago Fire...and Nazi Germany...?" She sounded disbelieving at least.
"I'm saying that whenever he visits, death and destruction follow." He was doing a good job of the caring yet grave pious old priest anyway, the fool.
Flipping through some more of the scrapbook, Decker was shaking her head. "Ok well, speaking as a detective, this is all...circumstantial evidence at best." That was something in her favour... Though, to be honest, her esteem in Arianwen's eyes had been declining for a while. Constantly dismissing Lu wasn't good in her estimate, but trusting Cain... well, by that point having known him for so long and still thinking Lucifer was a delusional nut-case, she was either wilfully ignorant or plain stupid. She was going with either, to be honest.
"Perhaps," The priest replied gravely, accepting the possibility, "But when the circumstances pile up this high, aren't you forced to draw conclusions." It was more of a statement than a question.
"No," Decker shook her head, still on the fence in her denial. "No, no I'm not." She near-slammed the book closed. "This isn't the man I know."
Woo, that's more like it! At least she wasn't completely disregarding everything she'd known of the man for the last three years! Point to Decker... She sounded pretty firm in that conviction too.
Kinley came over and opened the book again – to more recent incidents, by the look of it. "Keep going,"
Decker shook her head again, sounding less firm though as she returned to the book. "He didn't kill these people,"
She flipped another page. "Pierce..." She whispered, hesitating. "...Ok. so he killed Pierce." Cain, you stupid woman – I know Lu told you that. But, oh yeah, you ignored him! "Lucifer was just protecting me."
"From a situation he caused." That was one way of looking at it – the wrong way, but sure, whatever. "As for the others, you don't need to be the one pulling the trigger to cause evil." He paused, watching the woman before him. Smiling sympathetically, he leaned in closer to her. "Look, I know this is a lot to take in, Chloe. But he. Is. The Devil. And he's not supposed to be here."
...And she was falling for it. Damn.
"And somewhere inside you know that, whatever he may seem, he is dangerous."
The ominous lightening was a nice touch in the background – they'd been in this room for a while, as night had fallen. He couldn't have planned this better if he'd tried – sheer dumb luck. She cast a suspicious look towards the ceiling: well, it'd better have been luck. Not like their father often got involved these days...
He was holding out a vial now, and was that... holy water? Seriously? Bloody hell, these Vatican priests...
Decker picked it up.
***
Liberating the items she came for was easy, as was overhearing the rest of their dumb plan. Holy water and an exorcism... Sigh. No imagination, not even any original ideas. She expected better from a so-called religious exorcism specialist – oh well. Can't expect too much from hysterical humans, she supposed.
Of course, she called Lucifer as soon as she left, mailing her packages, er, 'liberated' from the Vatican to him as well. Not made of money like her friend was, she shrugged and just shipped it overseas without any rush. Couple of weeks at least and it would reach him in L.A. hopefully. Maybe she'd even be there by then herself...
Sighing, she let herself back into the hotel room she was staying at with her daughter after picking the sleepy little girl up from her temporary minder while her mother broke into the Vatican, quietly closing the door behind her. (And wasn't Decker supposed to have a kid too? Where was she? Home with her father, presumably, Arianwen knew from Lu that he had had a tough time recently.) Lucifer had a place in Rome, but she'd decided to stay nearer the Vatican – it wasn't like she thought the humans would manage to catch her even if they did catch her stealing from their precious 'Secure' Archives (and what a joke that name was). She knew she was free to stay at any of Lu's places around the world at any time, and she had a few herself that he was equally as free to use, but she had felt like a hotel. They were, after all, kind of on holiday.
Anyway, she'd called Lucifer on her way to pick up little Muireann. He hadn't been thrilled to say the least, but somewhat resigned as well. He'd come to expect betrayal from...well, pretty much everyone, though this one hurt more than most. He'd been growing apart from the human for a while though, and had recently started questioning her actions as well as his own feelings towards her.
Still, she knew the betrayal of his friend cut deep. Hearing that she had run to the Vatican had drawn a disgusted snort and an angry comment, but he honestly hadn't seemed overly surprised.
Plotting betrayal was one thing, however. Hopefully, when the foolish human returned to L.A. and resumed her friendship with the Devil – as seemed to be the plan, reading between the lines of what Kinley had been saying: he hadn't outright told Decker what he wanted from her yet, though it was pretty obvious when you thought about it. Or it should be, anyway: Arianwen wasn't overly convinced of this so-called 'Detective's powers of deduction, or of her general intelligence.
Still, hopefully she'd come to realise that the monster depicted in those damn books she was reading, and in the hysterical tales spread over the centuries as Christianity grew and spread across the globe was not the partner she had come to know and love. Hopefully, she would see the error of her ways, and remember that he was actually a good person.
Plotting to kill someone and actually going through with it were two very different things.
Still, she mused to herself as she put her sleeping daughter to bed, before readying herself. She'd stick around a little longer – keep an eye on the terrible twosome as they plotted – then go to L.A. herself. It had been a while since she had seen Lucifer, and she knew that her daughter would be thrilled to see her favourite uncle again (truthfully, the only uncle she'd met, and Arianwen and her partner were determined to keep it that way for as long as they could). Add to that the bonus of being on hand when shit hit the fan with Decker and the idiot priest, and the decision was all but made for her without even having to think too long on it.
Also, apparently their Dad had shown up. Yikes... She had no idea how that was going. Lucifer didn't seemed too furious/hurt/miserable, so that was something at least. And he was alive , which was actually saying a lot, not to mention still on earth...
He'd only briefly mentioned it during their relatively quick phone call, and she certainly wanted details on this new turn of events. She didn't particularly want her daughter anywhere near the Being: yes, she knew that, logically, He knew of the little girl's existence – all-knowing, and all that – but that didn't mean she actually wanted Him anywhere near her. Nope, not at all: they didn't know what He would do to her simply for just existing.
The last offspring of angels – the children of the Grigori – had been monstrous, and wiped out. Her little girl was nothing like them, but she wouldn't put it past this so-called 'merciful' God to have her killed anyway. Still, a problem for another day. She'd keep her girl away from the man – and, if she was lucky, avoid Him herself.
City of Angels, here we come.
***
Chloe Decker returned to L.A. and her job as an L.A.P.D. homicide detective a full month after she ran away. Don't judge her, alright? It was terrifying, finding out her partner – the... thing she had been in love with – was the actual Devil. Along with everything else that went along with that. Heaven, Hell, angels, demons, the Devil, God... It was too much, and she ran. She ran to Rome, where she had hoped to find answers.
She had found even better than she had hoped for in the confidences of Father Kinley – a good man who hadn't thought her crazy at all; who knew the Devil existed, and that 'Lucifer Morningstar' was one and the same. And, she shuddered slightly just thinking about it, they had a plan to send him away from earth, where he had no right to be. She didn't view it as murder: no, they were simply ensuring that he no longer existed on the earthly plane. That wasn't killing him...
She felt bad about abandoning Dan, though. She should have been there for him to help him through his grief after Charlotte (and it hadn't yet occurred to her everything that had happened with her apparently being Lucifer's old 'step-mother' the previous year) but she had been dealing with a lot herself, and hadn't been around.
Not only that, she had taken Trixie with her. She was not leaving her little girl in a place where she could run into the literal devil at any time – God knows what he would do to her! She couldn't believe she had allowed him to fool her for so long – acting as if his powers didn't work on her.
He'd probably been manipulating her on a subliminal level the whole time – there was no other explanation why she had liked him, or worked with him for so long. How he could possibly have fooled her into thinking he was, deep down, a good person beneath the hedonism and childishness. And to have the audacity to make her fall in love with him...! He would pay for all the pain he had caused humanity, and her family especially.
She had forgotten all the good he had done for her and hers, as well. Sure, it occurred to her sometimes, but it was always quickly overshadowed with the evidence Kinley had, and the stories she had heard. He had obviously been playing a long con – he was clearly twisted enough for it, and, being an immortal being, had the time.
Sick. Sick bastard.
Now, however, she had had to return to L.A. and to her job, and she had had to bring her little girl back into the danger zone. To mitigate this, she had sent the girl to stay with Dan. Not only would this – hopefully – put Trix in less danger from the hellish denizens in their life, it would also help her father, who had needed them but they had been gone.
Chloe took a deep breath, studying her reflection in the mirror as she got ready to leave for work in her otherwise silent house – Mazikeen hadn't been back while she was there, which she was grateful for.
This was it: time to go into the precinct, and pretend that everything was normal. She had just taken some vacation time to clear her head after everything with Pierce, having found out her ex-fiancee had been a crime-boss and his subsequent death – at the hands of the actual devil... She shuddered slightly. Right. She would have to see him too.
And she had to sell her part well: act like everything was fine between them, as if she didn't now know him for the monster he is. She would have to gain his trust – not that he had any reason to mistrust her: as if she had ever done anything to him! – and then, when the time was right, slip him the vial Father Kinley had given her.
That done and the devil incapacitated, she would call Kinley: together, they would get him to the appropriate spot – a place of worship and sin, apparently – though, if she could somehow get him to drink it in such a place, that would be a lot easier all round. Then, Kinley would perform the required exorcism, and they would send the devil back to hell where he belonged – or, if things went very well, even kill him for good.
They weren't quite sure how these things worked, to be perfectly honest – at least, Chloe wasn't. She assumed that, as a priest, Father Kinley knew more.
It wasn't murder, she told herself sternly as she felt a twinge of unease at the thought. It wasn't murder, because he wasn't a person. He wasn't human – he was a monster, and he didn't deserve to live. He left chaos and destruction in his wake – he shouldn't be on earth at all. Earth was for humans, and he was not human.
No, she told herself firmly, she could do this. She was a strong, capable woman. Sure, so she had never seen herself as having to rid the world of evil in quite such a literal sense, but, when they were finished, everything would be better. They would have achieved God's work, and they would no longer be tormented by evil. They would have won a great victory over the darkness, but that wasn't what she was most concerned with.
She had been terrified since she had seen that horrific face. Terrified for herself, for her daughter, of what it all meant.
With the devil gone, she would be safe. With the devil gone, her daughter would be safe – and away from his manipulative, evil influence.
With the devil gone, they would then deal with the demon Mazikeen. Chloe hadn't realised that her ex-roommate was a demon at first: too busy reeling from LUCIFER IS THE ACTUAL GODDAMN ("literally 'God-damned'" his snide voice purred in her mind) DEVIL to realise that the woman – the thing – had been telling the truth when she claimed to have been 'forged in the bowels of hell to torture the guilty for all eternity'. ...talk about a scary thought.
Dealing with Maze would get Trixie away from her too. She would tell the demon that Trixie was still mad at her – she had really hurt the girl's feelings before they left, when she had seemed to be spiralling, and God, Lucifer had said he wouldn't take her home, and that was Hell, and these things kept hitting her, tipping her previously science-and-fact-oriented world on its head over and over again. Would it ever stop?! Now knowing that it was all real was terrifying, but she could do this.
She had to. The world depended on it. Her daughter's life depended on it.
Lucifer Morningstar had to go.
***
Lucifer Morningstar had no intention of going anywhere that wasn't wherever he damn well pleased (with some obvious exceptions, which he did not please).
His Dad showing up shortly after the whole Cain fiasco and the Detective – Decker – running away had been one hell of a surprise (no pun intended), but, he found, he wasn't as thrown by it as he would have been previously.
He had, after all, had a revelation shortly before Chloe broke off her engagement with Pierce. He didn't hate his father after all – well, he did a little, but not as much as he had been telling himself he did for so very long. No, he hated himself .
He had been working on not viewing himself as a monster: Mikey was a great help with that, as his twin didn't see him that way at all. Both of them were dicks, to be fair, but neither were monsters. He still had a ways to go with his self-esteem, he knew, but not viewing himself how humanity had for so long... Well, it was a work in progress.
Surprisingly, his Dad was helping him with that too, just by being around. They hadn't exactly talked much: certainly far more than they had since he was kicked out of Heaven, but still not...great with the communication. Lucifer's excuse was he had spent millions of years in a fiery pit of despair, resenting the Father who had forced it upon him.
He had no idea what his Dad's excuse was. Being a dick, he supposed.
Still, it had been kinda nice. He still got furious fast – and a lot – but...he didn't hate having his parent around as much as he thought he would have. They hadn't exactly apologised to each other... No, they were both too proud for that. But they were...cordial, he supposed. Yes, cordial.
Not that God was around all that often – Lucifer didn't think he'd be able to cope if he was. Nope, he dropped by now and again, if they'd arranged to meet or something.
He'd introduced Linda. She'd been stunned, of course, though not quite as bad as when she had helped him and God Johnson escape from the nut-house. He supposed that she'd had a practice run, so to speak. And had heard a lot more about his bad qualities since then.
She'd been a, pardon the phrase, God-send. Not literally, thankfully – not like the Detective, and they would be talking about that at some point, so help him – but she'd been brilliant at helping him deal with his emotions, and had even sat in with both of them a couple of times.
It was slow going, but he hadn't immediately been annihilated for killing one of His precious humans, so he was counting himself very lucky. Of course, Lucifer had previously been an exception to this rule back when he was still Samael – often basically his Dad's personal assassin, not that he had told his human friend that – but he had assumed that he was subject to that law now since the Devil killing humans would presumably be a massive no-no.
Unless of course ordered by God, which had actually happened a couple of times since his Fall (Sodom and Gomorrah came to mind...).
He still had running Lux to distract him, thankfully, though he hadn't really been going into the L.A.P.D. much. He went sometimes – particularly when difficult suspects who weren't talking, and some officers would call him in to help, which he really didn't mind. But since the Detective had run away, he hadn't really been working on any of their cases properly.
At first this was due to personal affairs – he had, after all, killed their precious Lieutenant. While the FBI were working to bring down his crime ring, with help from dear Charlotte's compiled notes, he hadn't been involved much. He was, however, more than happy to help the FBI bring down what was left of that bastard.
It had mostly been kept out of the media, and he knew that the Detective had not been kept in the loop after she had run off, but the suits had been understanding at least. After questioning her, they had given her some time off to get her out of the way, pretty much. She didn't know about his criminal activities, that much was obvious. Usually persons of interest in an ongoing investigation were asked to stay in the country, but he knew that she hadn't. At least that didn't interfere with the investigation, thankfully.
Another surprise had been the lead agent, who, after spending some time with him in a couple of interviews, accepted that he was the Devil. As a true believer he had long lost his faith in any God – seeing what he did on a daily basis, Lucifer couldn't blame him – and had been easily convinced that Lucifer was telling the truth. That way at least he hadn't even had to creatively manipulate what had gone on, since he could mention his wings and not be viewed as looney tunes. Also thankfully, the man was not like 'normal' true believers: they were usually pretty crazy.
So Lucifer had a new acquaintance in the FBI who knew the truth about him, which was nice to have. Who knew when he may have need for someone like that. Though, to be fair, if he'd had that before this all went down, he could have gone to him and told him about Cain, he supposed. Then the FBI could have taken him down before Charlotte was killed.
Still, no changing the past.
Agent Green – and how fantastically nondescript was that, it was even the poor man's real name – had been perturbed by his presence at first but, upon realising he wasn't human, had seemed to relax. Not the usual reaction Lucifer tended to get, but hey.
Now, however, he was on his way to a crime scene Ella had told him about. He doubted he would be needed – nor that Chloe, the potential traitor, would be there – but he had said he'd come by. He had been spending more time with the forensic scientist since learning that his sister loved her and had sent her out here to be with him. Sure, while she had been gushing about Cain and Chloe and 'beautiful Pecker babies' he had pulled away a little, but he was coming to love the bubbly young woman himself, and truly valued her company.
Pulling up at the crime scene, he sprang out of his corvette and, hands in pockets, set off for the forensic scientist's side, mildly relieved not to see Espinoza anywhere. He didn't have anything – much, anymore – against the man personally, but the detective was back to being a douche again, blaming Lucifer for Charlotte's murder. They'd be having words about that sometime soon, if the other man didn't watch out.
"Hey, Luce!" Ella called, looking up with a grin as he approached.
"Morning, Miss Lopez. So, what happened to this poor sod then?"
He'd had a nice fight this morning, working out some of his frustrations on some idiot humans who had attempted to rob him, and was feeling pretty good this morning. Sure, he'd given the man some money in the end – even given him his trousers as he had relieved the other man of his the last time they had met. The man was almost certainly headed to hell so they would meet again, but for now this was more amusing.
He had been thinking of the Detective and her potential betrayal, wondering when she'd be back and how she planned on playing this when they had come up behind him and threatened him with their funny little guns. He couldn't be certain of course, not until she returned, but he was pretty sure he'd sorted out his mortality sitch around the Detective as well, not that they could have hurt him without her around anyway. He's been feeling melancholy and considering playing 'Creep' on his piano, but had decided against it. He wasn't that affected by the Detective leaving.
Truthfully, it had hit him less than he'd thought it would.
"Beekeeper guy, honey scraper to the neck," She chirped, moving back to the corpse. She glanced up at him. "Still waiting for Decker, huh? Turning up at crime scenes to see if she's back?"
Lucifer arched an eyebrow at her. "Ms Lopez, you're the one who called me here, remember? Decker has made her choice – can't say I'm too surprised at it – and she'll be back when she's back."
"Er...choice? Huh?"
Lucifer waved away her confusion. "Nothing, nothing. You wouldn't believe me anyway," He grimaced at her, before softening. "Speaking of, I can't help but notice you're still covering your cross. Everything OK there?"
She flushed slightly, looking down to fiddle with her camera. "Oh, y'know..." She swallowed, then flashed him a small, wavering smile. "Kinda on the outs with the big guy."
"It's His loss, Miss Lopez." He supplied softly, giving her a slight, kind smile. The Devil advocating religion...sigh. He had never resented her her relationship with his Father, however: religion brought her peace, something to turn to, and he would never want to take that away from her. It truly was his Father's loss.
"Thanks big guy," She gave him a tremulous smile, before changing the subject with false cheer once more. "And don't worry! Decker'll be back soon! It's not like she's just going to walk up –"
Her mouth fell open slightly as Chloe Decker appeared at Lucifer's shoulder. She noticed the man stiffened slightly, before turning to face her. Huh...
"Decker! Oh my God!"
Chloe laughed, leaning forwards to accept Ella's enthusiastic hug. "How have you been?! How was the vacay? And why are you not more tanned?!" She was pulling aside Chloe's jacket as she rambled, grinning widely as she slapped the other woman's shoulder.
Decker laughed, "I will fill you in later, but for now; what's going on here?" She gestured to the dead body behind them, seemingly ignoring Lucifer as he watched her, an odd blankness to his expression.
Ella smiled, and turned back to the body. "Sure," She chirped, as Chloe gave the man beside her a wary look, quickly focusing on the forensic scientist. "Of course. Ah, so, our victim is 55 year old bee-keeper named Bob Goldback, cause of death chh – honey scraper in the neck!" She mimed out as she went. "Gnarly thing right! Who'd have thought bee-keeping was kind of badass."
"And it looks like one of the hives was attacked..." Decker mused, still pointedly ignoring Lucifer beside her, who had looked away back at the body.
A few months ago he would have been fretting something fierce: now, however, with everything that had happened between them and his realisations about their friendship as it collapsed around Cain, he wasn't as worried for her as he might have been – certainly not for their relationship, whatever that may be.
Not with her plotting to kill him, anyway... Still, he could play the part. He was admittedly curious to see how she was going to play this...
"So maybe Bob caught the killer stomping on his poor bees and they fought?" Ella hypothesised, and Decker nodded her agreement.
"Possibly. Any witnesses?"
"None. But, Bob's wife Lenore's over there."
"Great, thanks," She smiled at the forensic specialist, still not looking at Lucifer. That wasn't too out of character when working a case, though he got the distinct impression it was very much to do with the recent evidence she had seen that had forced her to finally face the truth. Seeing his Devil face was certainly not something she could just explain away or completely ignore as she had done everything else in the past. "I'll go talk to her. Good work Ella," She complimented as she strode off.
"Sure," She smiled, before moving round to Lucifer. "God, Chloe's back. Now we can finally get back to normal!" She punched Lucifer's chest, but he was watching the woman leave, and didn't react.
So far, there wasn't really much to tell how she would be acting – presumably, since their plan was to get his trust and 'drug' him with holy water, she wouldn't be ignoring him the whole time. She'd stood close to him, which he supposed was something – even if it was all an act. Ignoring him wasn't exactly going to achieve their goal though... Maybe she was acclimatising to being in the presence of the big scary Devil, he thought bitterly.
He followed after her, and stood to the side as she questioned the wife. Innocent man, no-one would hurt him, pillar of the community, and blah blah blah. He watched the detective out the corner of his eye as he half-listened(ish), not being too obvious about it – not that he cared.
As they went to move away from the wife, he stepped in front of her, forcing her to stop.
"Are you...OK?"
"Yeah," She nodded, glancing up to meet his eyes before looking back down again. Seeming to gather her courage (and doing a poor job of covering that, since he knew what to look for), she looked up at him again and smiled. "Fine."
"Where did you go?" Sounding confused, though he knew exactly where she had gone. If she admitted it...
"Oh, I took Trixie to Europe, and we travelled around, and, y'know, it gave me time to...process...what I saw," She was looking at him mildly conspiratorially, urging his understanding of her hints, nodding away.
"And...have you? Processed? Are you...OK with what you saw?"
"I..."
"Detective, are you OK with me?"
"Well, it's not like you haven't always told me the truth," She justified. "Y'know. So I think, deep down I just...I always knew," She shrugged.
"But, how does it make you feel?" He urged. "Afraid? Terrified? You want to yell at me? Punch me in the face? Run away again?" Couldn't help that little dig there...
"I...I think I just wanna get back to work," She shrugged with a smile.
"That's all?" Slightly disbelieving.
"That's all." That smile again, urging him to believe everything was OK.
With that said, she turned and went back to her work.
Game on then, he thought, following after with hellfire flashing briefly through his eyes.
***
She faked it pretty well, all things considered, Lucifer mused later that night. He hadn't seen Linda yet – hadn't mentioned that Chloe was plotting against him. He'd been telling himself that maybe she wouldn't – had been holding onto a last glimmer of hope.
However, as Morpheus had reminded him before he had come to Earth this last time, hope was a form of torture, as the Devil well knew. Always the hope of something more... well, the Detective flinching away – nearly jumping out her skin, as the expression went – when he touched her shoulder at the farmer's market killed a little more of that hope.
So much for being fine with him... Sure, she was 'startled'. Right. Because that made so much sense – he'd been walking beside her, talking with her, it wasn't like it was out of the realm of ordinary for him to touch her shoulder!
Amenadiel's return had been a surprise. It was good to see him – which was surprising in itself – but he was glad his brother had got his wings back. Though he had seemed a little reluctant, perhaps, to return to the Silver City straight away... Maybe he was just reverting back to the automaton he had been, with all the smug, sanctimonious lecturing of course.
And Maze, he should speak with her about the Detective. He knew that the demon was heading over to their shared apartment – she had never officially moved out, after all – to see the Decker girls. She had wanted to see where things stood with Chloe, true – Lucifer hadn't mentioned Arianwen's information yet: he was waiting to see what Chloe would do, and it hadn't exactly come up in conversation as it were – but more she wanted to see the young spawn.
Truthfully, Lucifer wouldn't mind seeing the girl himself: she had certainly grown on him, he thought fondly, and was an excellent student, picking up various new tricks from both Mazikeen and Lucifer himself.
He somehow doubted the detective would be fine with her daughter around the demon, however...not with how she had been reacting to him. Oh, sure, she was acting as if they were fine, and talking a pretty game, but Lucifer was keeping his guard up. He was noticing the cracks.
He wondered how long she would be able to keep it up. It was kind of funny, watching her reactions to his devillish skills. Mean, perhaps, but he felt she deserved it at least a little. And it wasn't like he had never shown her any of it before: now she just had a context she couldn't explain away anymore.
Shame he hadn't been able to throw the human, though. Sure, that wouldn't exactly have helped her view of him, but it would've been fun.
"How was your day, son?" A voice greeted him as he entered his penthouse, and Lucifer held back a sigh. Great: his Dad was here.
"Fine," He replied mildly, moving to pour himself a drink. "The detective has returned."
God – going by El, of course – raised a salt-and-pepper eyebrow. "Oh? How is she?"
"Saying everything's fine – acting as if she's fine with me being the Devil."
"You don't believe her?"
"Well not particularly, no!"
El nodded thoughtfully. "She's working with you though?"
"Aren't you up on what she's up to?" Lucifer snarked. "I thought you were supposed to be all seeing, all knowing and all that."
El chuckled slightly. "Only if I look." He replied, amused. "Seriously, though, I haven't really been watching the two of you – too much temptation to intervene."
Lucifer raised a sardonic eyebrow at Him as he leant back against the bar. "And yet you put her in my path." He replied dryly, though a hint of steel creeping into his voice and into his gaze. They hadn't really talked about this yet – truth be told, they had both mutually been avoiding the issue, along with a whole host of other ones. It was something of a miracle (ha!) that they hadn't come to blows yet, and neither particularly wanted to change that.
El shrugged. "I did, yes. I ensured she was born, foreseeing when you'd leave hell for an extended vacation," They both knew he wasn't retired as he liked to claim, not really, "But beyond that, that was all up to you and her. Yes, I made her immune to your charms, but that was so that she'd be intriguing for you. Admit it: how often do you meet people who challenge you?"
Lucifer had to give him that, but he wasn't about to tell his Father that. "So you were manipulating us."
"Son, everything you felt – everything she felt – that was all entirely you. I made the possibility of you two meeting possible, yes, but I did not ensure it. For all I knew, you could have never even met, and there would be one extra person in the world than there was going to be. There was never an end-game for you two.
"Truthfully, she was a...gift, I suppose. Someone who could help you see the good within yourself, to draw you out of the anger and pain, if you wished her to. I did not create her to love you, nor did I force her to – nor you her. That's all on you," He finished softly, watching His son from His position on the (expensive, comfortable) beige leather sofa.
Lucifer snorted, still smarting from finding out Chloe Decker was a miracle "Sure, right."
"You don't believe me?"
His son sighed, seeming to deflate slightly before his eyes. "I don't know what to believe," He admitted quietly, staring down into his newly refilled glass. "I've spent so long believing the worst of you – that you're manipulating everything, all the time – that it's...hard," He swallowed, and forced himself to continue. Linda would be proud of him... "It's hard to believe you'd do something...good, I suppose. For me."
"I didn't take her free will," His father replied, knowing this was a big problem with His son. "I wouldn't. She's human: and, as with all humans – her choices, her actions, her consequences." He shrugged. "You know that's why we don't interfere."
Lucifer sighed, throwing back his drink in one long swallow. "Yes, I know. Still: old habits die hard." He gave his Father a ghost of a hard smile, and He knew to let the topic drop – for now.
"You have new case you're working on with her then?"
"Mm, yes. Former mobster murdered while in witness protection. Although," He suddenly added with a grin, "Avocado honey's surprisingly good."
El chuckled at that, trying for a warm smile. He almost succeeded (He was admittedly out of practice dealing with any of His children, this son especially). "Sounds...unique."
So they weren't at loggerheads, and they weren't approaching an all-out war. Sure, they weren't in a great space either, but they were doing better than Lucifer had ever thought they would. Truthfully, God hadn't ever expected any kind of reconciliation with His son either.
He had hoped, sure, but, like His boy, He was too proud to make the first move Himself for so very long. When Lucifer had asked him for a favour saving the Detective and her child's lives...had given him carte-blanche for two humans, he had begun to gain a sliver of hope.
Of course, His ex-wife had broken out at the time, so He had asked (in His usual fantastically unspecific, indirect way) Lucifer to deal with Her.
And what a solution he had found. He hadn't killed Her, and he had avoided a war. He hadn't gone along with Her plans – hadn't stormed the Silver City, cut through the gates, or tried to kill Him. No, His son had found a better solution, one with (almost) no bloodshed: he had sent his Mother to another universe, literally cutting a hole through the fabric of this one to do so. Sure, He missed His ex on occasion.
Then He would remember how bat-shit She had gone, and why He had tossed Her away in the first place, and those pesky pangs went away. He was, however, grateful that She was still alive, and presumably thriving in Her own little universe.
So things were – tentatively – looking up for Him and His long-lost son.
Maybe He should look into what Chloe Decker was up to, however. Lucifer didn't seem overly pleased with her – obviously not buying that she was fine with him being the Devil – and he seemed to know more about whatever was going on than he was letting on.
No. No, for now He would let the children sort it out amongst themselves. If the time came when He should step in...well, He wouldn't sit back on the sidelines – not this time.